artist voice

Life and Art: The Journal of a Recovering Perfectionist

I look at others’ art and want to replicate what they do. I want to create journal pages that look like my “art journal hero’s”.  But that simply isn't me. I’m still not good at finding my voice in the art/visual journal realm.

•        I don’t use my art/visual journal to “process” life’s events or problems. (I do that in morning pages.)
•         I don’t find using magazine models to represent “me” or what is going on with me.
•         The closest I come to a match is Traci Bautista’s doodle pages with lots of colored layers and stencils and stamps and just a few words.

Anyway … I just go with what I feel at the moment. And yesterday I felt like doodling. So I did. And I enjoyed it. I’ve also presented myself with a challenge – to fill up the entire page with doodles - fill in between the doodle flowers with zentangles or circles or whatever. Fill up the page with marks.

I like the idea of a challenge. And I like the idea the page (or portion) can be captured and used elsewhere. Like on a greeting card or a piece of fabric (embellished).

But back to perfectionism … as inspired as I am by all the lovely art online, I’m simply overwhelmed with it. I get to a point of being unable to start because I don’t know where to start or I feel my page won’t measure up. So, if I were to “coach” me …

Coach: “What would you like to create?”

Me: “A book filled with colorful pages.”

Coach: “What would be on these pages?”

Me: “Besides colorful backgrounds, I’d like colorful doodles and colorful collages and colorful images.”

Coach: “Anything else?”

Me: “Well, yes. I’d like the pages to begin to express "me". I’d like the pages to uncover my artist voice.”

Coach: “Artist voice. Tell me about this.”

My Artist Voice

I’d like my art to be an expression of ME, not a copy of others.

My doodles are an expression of me. I love to doodle. It’s a way to get color on a page without the skill of sketching (a current fad that I've not fallen into) or drawing (which apparently I’m not ready to pursue.)

Circles are an expression of me. The circle represents unity, whole. I love circles. I love the circle connection series I've worked on because they’re colorful but require skill. They’re “modern” (I’m not much into vintage) and very abstract.

Other shapes that express me are flowers and houses (both funky and wonky). My home is central to who I am. My garden is a part of that expression of what’s important to me. While I can’t draw “real” flowers (I say can’t but I really mean don’t), I love the funkiness of doodles flower shapes. And I love wonky house shapes.

This is what I know so far about my artist voice.

Coach: “This is a great start. Now … go forth and make art that makes you happy!”

And so I did ... I love this page ... my intention is to journal on it somewhere "When in doubt ... doodle". And yes, this page makes me happy.